


Disappeared

by orphan_account



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-25
Updated: 2013-10-25
Packaged: 2017-12-30 10:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1017504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An interpretation of what could have happened the day Percy disappeared from Manhattan Island at the start of "The Heroes of Olympus."   An AU of sorts</p><p>discontinued</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disappeared

PART ONE: SALLY

 

It was just like any other Friday morning.  First hitting the snooze button twice, then rolling out of bed to wake up her two favorite guys.  She married Paul only a couple of months ago and has loved every minute of having an actual life partner that she honestly loves.  She shook him awake, placing a kiss on his cheek as she got up to go next door.

She always loved her New York apartment.  Everything about it made her think of home, and the noise and lights of the big city reminded her she was never alone.  Quietly she reached for the doorknob to the next room, lightly knocking as she opened the door.  “Percy, dear, its time to wake u-“ she started, only to see him sitting on his bed on the laptop he borrowed, “Have you been up writing that all night?”

Percy shook his head and chuckled, “Nah mom, just sending a few emails.”  She smiled.  Knowing it wouldn’t be anywhere in his safety range to carry a cell phone, emailing was the easiest way to communicate with his camp friends, and girlfriend, when they weren’t around.  “Annabeth will be here around 6 tonight, is that still alright?” Percy confirmed.

Sally always loved it when she came over, not only was it nice to have another girl in the house, but she always loved seeing Percy so happy.  Anytime she says she is coming over, he paces around the kitchen just waiting for the landlord to call, saying she arrived.  “Of course, does she have any opinions on dinner tonight?  My treat,” she asked.  She always had a habit of buying food for their whole family when she came over.  Sally didn’t understand how exactly, but she decided not to question it.

Percy clicked a few buttons on the computer, “She mentioned something about grabbing take-out, but I’m not sure exactly.  If anything we can just decide something when she gets here.”  Percy shrugged as he shut off the laptop, “Now if you don’t mind mom, I need to get ready for school,” he finished as Paul walked out of their bedroom completely dressed, apart from an undone tie, with a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth.

She sighed, “Oh I suppose,” she started in her most sarcastic exasperated mom tone, “Do pancakes sound good for breakfast?” 

He handed her the laptop, “Pancakes sound great mom, thanks.”  She backed away from his door so he could close it.  She smiled a fantastically cheesy grin over towards Paul as she made her way into the little kitchen.

 

Sally was incredibly glad when she got married that Paul moved into her apartment.  It would have been too much to ask Percy right before he left for camp ‘ _oh yeah so now that we’re married now we need you to pack up everything and when you get back we’ll be at Paul’s_.’  Any conversation like that was out of the question, so Paul agreeing to move in with her was simply music to her ears. 

She reached for the pancake mix as Paul came out of the bathroom, just as Percy was walking in.  Looking over she asked, “How many do you want?”  Not waiting for his response she opened the refrigerator and pulled out the carton of milk and eggs.

Paul seemed to be thinking very deeply about it, “Oh three is perfectly fine with me,” he smirked as she opened the cupboard with the most important ingredient, blue food coloring.

As she plugged in and started up the griddle, she responded, “They’ll be right out,” One by one she poured and mixed all the ingredients together, and as soon as the mix was creamy enough she added the food coloring.  She was just glad that no matter how old her son was, he still ate every bit of blue food that was cooked up.  He told her stories about drinking blue coke, while seeming odd to her, she remembered this was _camp_ he was talking about, but she just found it endearing. 

Paul started pulling juices out of the refrigerator and placed two gallons of apple and orange juice on the table, along with three cups, moving Percy’s project for his own class onto the couch.  Sally could tell how much Percy enjoyed Goode High School, and even more so because of his Ancient Greek and Roman History course, it was one thing that Percy was guaranteed to do well in.  He spent all last weekend with Annabeth building a scale model of the Parthenon for a presentation, which was now on the couch, and watching them work around the living room reminded Sally of Ancient Greece.  A mess, with columns of PVC pipe, cardboard, and foam core all over the place.  They were up working so late that they ended up crashing in the living room, Annabeth on the couch and Percy with his legs sprawled on the chair. 

Sally swears that he still has foam core in his hair to this day.

She flipped the last of the pancakes as Percy walked out of the bathroom, rubbing a towel over his hair, “It smells good mom!  Can’t wait,” he walked back into his room. 

Paul started pulling the butter and syrup out of the cabinet and placed it on the table, where he sat down momentarily.  Looking up he asked, “Is Annabeth still coming over tonight?”

“Percy, it’s ready!” she shouted in his direction.  Looking at Paul she responded, “From my knowledge that’s the plan.  Percy didn’t say too much.  If she is coming over I doubt she’ll be here for too long,” Paul nodded.  Most of this semester when Annabeth came over, her and Percy didn’t stay at the apartment for too long.  He loved showing her around the city.  Half the time after their ‘excursions’ he would talk over breakfast how she had never been to out-of-city parks, which Sally was surprised that Percy had been to in the first place.  She placed three blue pancakes on Paul’s plate as Percy emerged from his room running the towel through his hair. 

Over breakfast Paul questioned how Percy’s literature project was going, he didn’t mention any problems with it, but half of Sally was wondering if he was just saying that.  Literature has never been the easiest subject for him, being dyslexic, she could tell how much he struggled with it, but it was also like him to work through it himself.  As soon as Paul’s plate was empty, he excused himself from the table to leave for school.  Sally stood up to give him a kiss on the cheek, wishing him a good day of classes, while Percy waved him out. 

Sally walked back towards the table as she observed her son; he was just sitting and pushing remainders of blue pancakes around a pool of syrup.  She sat across from him, “Okay, what’s bothering you?”

He didn’t look up, “It’s nothing really, just some of the emails from the camp got me thinking is all.  Don’t worry about it, mom,” he finished with smile on his face.  She knew he hated it when she worried about him, but any time he brought it up she just shrugged it off as a ‘mom thing,’ but he knew it was much more than that.  His life was always in danger and she knew it too, no matter how much she wanted him to be able to live at home for a summer, and not worry about monsters on the subway for a change – like a normal kid.

Percy finished the last few bites of his pancake as Sally started cleaning the kitchen, keeping an eye on him through the small window looking out on the kitchen table.  Slowly he got up and brought his plate into the kitchen.  As he placed his plate under the sink Sally really looked at him.  She hated seeing him so exhausted, but with his leadership roles at camp and getting through high school he had enough on his plate to keep him up late.  Percy looked up and flashed his mom a smile, “Mom, stop worrying about me, I’ll be fine.”  He patted his mom’s shoulder as she pulled him into a hug.  At sixteen he was already a good few inches taller than her, and every time she saw him anymore was a reminder that he wasn’t a child anymore.  She had to let go.

As he peeled his body away from hers, he looked at the oven clock and quietly cursed.  Sally sent him the ‘mom glare’ as he ran into his room, and came out within seconds with his backpack ready and truck keys in hand.  “Do you need help with your project?” Sally called out as Percy reached for the doorknob.

He turned around, as if making a realization that he forgot something very important, “I got it,” he walked over to the couch hurriedly, “thanks, mom.”

She smirked, “See you this afternoon, I love you.”

Percy opened the door, “I love you too.” 

Sally heard a click as the door re-locked behind him, and she got out her computer to do her own homework.  After years of working dead-end jobs, getting married allowed her to go back to school, which she absolutely loved. 

Before she knew it, she was typing her paper for a solid 4 hours when she got a call from Paul.  “Well good afternoon, how is school going?” She greeted.

“It’s going well, being Friday not much is going on,” she could sense Paul was troubled about something, “Percy left for school today, right?”

Sally sat upright, “Yeah, he had his project and everything, sure he almost forgot it but I don’t think he would have gone anywhere else with it,” she paused, afraid of the answer, “Why do you ask?”

Paul took a breath, “Apparently he didn’t make it to his mythology class.  His teacher sent me an email during one of the presentations to check on him.  It’s not like him to not show up to a presentation, especially in Mythology.”

Sally didn’t want to say what she feared happened, so she made a decision, “I’ll call Annabeth, see if he’s over there with her already,” she paused, remembering the last time he took a day off school.  One of the main campus buildings had a gas leak that cancelled all the classes on her campus, so Percy took a detour to pick her up and completely forgot about his school responsibilities.  When they made it home, Sally and Paul were sitting at the table-worried sick, and Annabeth looked over at him completely furious, “What do you mean you had school today?  You should have known better than to skip!  Grand Central Station is not worth missing a day of your education!”  Even though he was so grounded, Sally couldn’t help but find herself amused. 

It didn’t take two rings for Annabeth to pick up her phone, “Hey Sally, is anything wrong?” Annabeth asked confused.  Obviously she wasn’t expecting her boyfriend’s mom calling in the middle of her lunch break.

Sally loved how she called her by her first name, it was just much more personal, “No, just calling to check up on you,” moment of truth, “Percy isn’t over there by chance, is he?”  She held her breath for but a second.

Annabeth was absolutely shocked, “No, he never said anything about coming over, and he isn’t here now.” 

Sally swallowed hard.  Not anything near what she wanted to hear.

“Is he not there?” Annabeth asked, obviously worried about the long pause just now. 

Sally held to the phone to her ear, and in an act of causing less worry for the teen, “Oh he probably just worked through a class again, nothing to worry about.”

“Okay,” Annabeth started, still quite confused, “Well I’ll see you all tonight I guess.”

Sally nodded her head, “Of course Annabeth.  See you soon.”  She hung up the phone only to see 5 missed calls from Paul.   Immediately she called him back.

The second he picked up the phone his voice was a sheer and utter panic. “I went outside for lunch and his truck was parked right near mine, so he has to be here, but none of his teachers have seen him in class today either.”  It sounded like he was still outside, as if looking at his car, “His Parthenon is still in the passenger seat too, and I am pretty sure his backpack is on the floor there too.” 

Sally couldn’t catch her breath for the longest second of her life, “Can you pull parking lot security footage?” she asked desperately.

Paul looked towards the school, “I can do my best.  I’ll let you know as soon as I get any information.”  Sally’s breathing got deeper and deeper, holding back tears.  Paul could sense it too, “Don’t worry, Sally, we will find him.  Together.  I’ll be home soon, I love you.”

She could barely make a weak “I love you” come out of her mouth before hanging up her phone.  She shut her laptop and cried.

At that moment, she swore all of New York went silent, and Sally Blofis was never more alone in her life. 

**Author's Note:**

> Depending on my class workload I may or may not continue writing this. Currently the plan is to continue though.


End file.
